


hateful

by orphan_account



Series: that yj fic [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Tim Drake, M/M, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Tim Drake, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 14:42:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6961141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Oh yeah,” Tim took a careful step toward Red Hood. This was probably the most amiable they’d ever been, at least on Hood’s side. “You know those will kill you?”</p><p>Hood looked down at the cigarette between his fingers. “So will dressing up in a costume and fighting crime,” he pointed out, flicking the cigarette onto the street below. “Believe me, I know.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	hateful

**Author's Note:**

> a few things  
> » this is part of a verse that i've been Trying to work on, appropriately dubbed 'that yj fic' or 'tyjf' for short  
> » not sure when more on this verse will come out. does anybody care? probably not.  
> » ive been re-drafting the stuff here for months and ive decided to just Go With It and publish this one, bc why not right. it is (or begins) near the beginning of the timeline, anyway  
> » umm all i rly can think to say abt this verse is that raven and starfire appear and they are Gay  
> » let tim and steph be friends and not have All That Relationship Drama pls

Gotham’s newest vigilante (who was on the darker side of the vigilante scale, at least in Tim’s notes) had been tormenting Tim for a few weeks now.

Well, maybe tormenting was a bit of a strong word. The Red Hood had been following him around, jumping in on his solo patrols (never the ones with Batman, though those happened rarely anyway) and antagonizing him, but Tim wasn’t sure if he was exactly being  _ tormented. _ He was more annoyed than anything. But - if his theories (and he always had theories) were correct, he supposed Hood had a reason to hate him.

Tim didn’t like to talk about his theories. He hated being wrong; he’d spent enough time trying to earn Batman and the rest of the Team/League’s respect already, and he didn’t want to lose it with an incorrect hypothesis. So he kept quiet, even if he practically knew he was right.

He wasn’t too sure about his idea with the Red Hood, anyway. It was impossible - but then again, a lot of the things he dealt with seemed impossible. (Tim still didn’t want to be wrong.)

Anyway, the Red Hood had been antagonizing him for a few weeks, maybe even months. So Tim wasn’t too surprised that he’d been found by him (them? Tim wasn’t sure what Hood’s gender identity was. He didn’t want to assume.) on a mission that had gone… slightly wrong.

“I can’t think of a monkey pun,” said a familiar voice from above, “so I don’t think I’ll try. I’m sure this is very disappointing.”

Conner -  _ Superboy  _ \- kicked a smaller monkey into a pool of acid. Tim felt kind of horrible, because he didn’t have anything against monkeys, even if Kon did. Tim also wasn’t even sure why Conner had a thing against monkeys. It couldn’t have been a traumatic childhood event, because Conner hadn’t had a childhood.

Then again, he was - what, six years old? Technically, any traumatic event was a traumatic childhood event. Damn. Tim’s childhood had been filled with static; he wasn’t like Dick or Batman, with  _ issues  _ in their pasts. (Dick tended to disagree on that, but Tim didn’t like to hear it.)

“Great,” Superboy said, moving into a defensive stance as he turned toward the voice. “Company.”

“Company.” The voice agreed, finally jumping down from the rooftop to reveal - the Red Hood. Tim had already recognized the voice, but obviously Conner hadn’t met him. Metas weren’t even usually allowed in Gotham, per Batman’s rule. (Did aliens - half-aliens - count as metas?)

“So who are you supposed to be?” Conner asked, stepping back onto a monkey. Tim was suddenly glad Beast Boy hadn’t been on Beta. “Helmet Face?” Tim personally thought he could’ve done a lot better in the insult department, but he could forgive Kon. If only because he was surrounded by his greatest enemies.

“Red Hood.” Red Hood’s voice made it clear he wasn’t impressed. “What’s with the monkeys?”

“It’s a long story,” said Tim, who usually didn’t talk all that much to villains/anti-heroes unless he had something good to say, which wasn’t  _ too  _ often. He’d learned early on that the Hood would just continue to antagonize him until he said something, so it was better not to try.

Hood  _ hmme _ d, kicking another monkey into the acid. Tim felt bad for the monkeys. They hadn’t asked for this.

“You know I hate you?” Red Hood asked him, and Tim could tell he was glaring behind the mask. 

“You’ve said,” Tim affirmed. “I still don’t have a definite reason why, but I’m okay with that.”

“I hate you,” Red Hood announced, grabbing a monkey that had climbed onto his jacket and squeezing it. Tim was pretty sure Hood was imagining he was the monkey, but he didn’t want to be arrogant or anything. “I can’t believe  _ you’re  _ fucking Robin. I’m out.”

Superboy tried to go after him, but tripped on a monkey. By the time he caught himself, the Red Hood was out the window and running across a rooftop. “Shit,” he said.

“Shit,” Tim agreed.

(Conner didn’t ask how Tim knew the Red Hood, or who the Red Hood was, and because Batman/Nightwing didn’t question Tim relentlessly the day after, he must not have mentioned him in the mission report file. Tim was grateful for that. Honestly, Conner was such a great friend. Tim was so glad they’d started hanging out.)

(Tim was a little bit of a fanboy. It was part of why he and Wonder Girl got along so well.)

 

/

 

“I hate you,” Red Hood said as Tim joined him, tentatively, on a rooftop at the outskirts of Gotham. Tim had just finished patrolling with Spoiler, a fourteen year old vigilante who somehow had more sexual and non-sexual experience than Tim, who was almost fifteen years old.

“Still need a reason,” Tim said. They were still polite, even though the Red Hood had been violent and malevolent toward then. They had a theory. They weren’t sure how accurate their theory was, but just in case it was true… 

“No, you don’t,” Hood said. He was holding a cigarette, though Tim wasn’t sure how he was going to smoke it with a helmet on. Maybe there was some sort of detachable part… “I don’t have the fucking energy to fight you right now, so you’re lucky, bird boy.”

“What about bird kid?” Tim asked, regretting it immediately. “Not so much of a boy right now.”

Red Hood turned, regarded them, head tilted all the way to the side. “Oh yeah?” he asked.

“Oh yeah,” Tim took a careful step toward Red Hood. This was probably the most amiable they’d ever been, at least on Hood’s side. “You know those will kill you?”

Hood looked down at the cigarette between his fingers. “So will dressing up in a costume and fighting crime,” he pointed out, flicking the cigarette onto the street below. “Believe me, I know.”

“Hm,” said Tim. That matched up with their theory, almost concerningly well. “You aren’t scared Batman will come out here and see you talking to me?” they asked, moving to the edge of the building beside Hood.

“Way I see it, you’re talking to me,” Red Hood said. He looked at Tim curiously, though Tim couldn’t quite tell from behind the helmet. “Besides. Does Batman really care about you?”

That stung. 

(Tim wasn’t sure they wanted to know the answer to that one.)

“Maybe,” Tim said. “Why do you care? You hate me.” If there was one thing Tim was good at, it was using people’s words against themselves.

“That I do, bird kid,” Red Hood stood up. “That I do.”

Then he left, leaving Tim alone on the rooftop, where they stood until Spoiler found him again, music blaring from her phone, and then they were pulled away to a minor crime scene.

The Red Hood didn’t show.

 

/

 

Sometimes, though Tim didn’t dare say it, Tim hated their family. 

He didn’t hate Dick. Tim didn’t think they could  _ ever  _ hate Dick, though he hated himself for it. They knew they weren’t really anything to Dick, though. Just another troublesome brother (they weren’t a boy, not really, but they wouldn’t say that) that was going to get killed.

And Batman...

Tim hated to say that they hated Batman. But sometimes, they did. Sometimes like these times. It was close to Tim’s fifteenth birthday - only a little more than a week, and they would be old enough to legally drive a car. Not like it had stopped them before. For Tim’s almost-fifteenth birthday, Batman had given them a test.

Tim could do tests. They were fine with tests - he dealt with those all the time. But the ‘test’ Batman -  _ Bruce  _ had given him… had been over the line. Tim had spent weeks trying to find a traitor that hadn’t existed. Weeks trying to protect the bat family from a threat that had never existed.

They didn’t blame Alfred. But Bruce… Batman… 

“I hate Batman.” 

Tim was sitting on the roof of his old house - his  _ parents’  _ house, the place that had never been a home to them. Tim, technically, owned the house, now that their mom was dead and their dad was in a coma, likely never to come out. Sometimes Tim went there to relax, though it had never been the most relaxing place.

Tim didn’t like to think about their parents.

“Shit, kid, me too,” said a voice, again familiar, and this time not too hostile. “Oh. And I hate you, too.” Well, they’d said not  _ too  _ hostile.

“You messed up,” Tim said, voice neutral, not giving anything away. “If Batman knew you knew my identity, he’d be pissed,” they added.  _ At me,  _ he thought.

“Yeah, at you,” Red Hood scoffed, kicking the tile rooftop until a bit of it broke off. “You kinda gave yourself away there, though.”

“Right,” Tim said, not wavering. They didn’t care much for the Red Hood’s antics right then. They didn’t care much for anything, really. “Obviously. Are you gonna fight me or leave me alone?”

“Neither, maybe,” Red Hood said, sounding  _ almost  _ amused, and just a bit annoyed. “What did Batman do this time? Get mad at you cuz you fucked up on field? Deserve that.”

“No,” Tim said, and glared. “You don’t need to know. I don’t know why I haven’t told Batman you’ve been - what, stalking me?” The last part was more of a question than a statement.

“More like haunting you,” Red Hood scoffed. “As if he’d care someone was stalking you. He doesn’t give a shit about anyone, bird.” The last part was sneered, like a slur. A slur against Robins (a slur against himself?).

“Hm,” Tim said, playing along. “I think he might care about Nightwing, though.”

Red Hood let out a sound -  _ hah -  _ bitter and not so amused. “I think you’re right,” he said. “Goldie’s the best, obviously.”

Evidence added to the pile. 

“You know who I am,” Tim said. “I don’t know who you are.” Perhaps he did. But either way, it didn’t seem fair.

“You sure?” Red Hood asked, and jumped off the roof, shooting him the bird (Tim never said they didn’t love puns) as he fell, landed on the ground without a scratch.

“Not so sure,” Tim muttered, and stood up to go back inside.

Not so sure at all.

 

/

 

Two days later, it was Halloween, and Robin was working full-time to make sure no kids got kidnapped while out trick-or-treating. Batman and Nightwing (for some reason, most criminals in Blüdhaven took a break on Halloween) were on the other, more crime-populated side of town.

It was just his luck that a child got kidnapped two blocks away from him. He heard the girl’s screams as he strode across the rooftop, looking out for any wrongdoers. Tim cursed as he ran toward the sound - he knew playful children’s screaming, and he knew the screaming of people in trouble.

When he got to the scene, a man (he looked familiar - who was he? Tim didn’t have time to check the mini-computer on his wrist-) was dragged a girl into an alleyway, muttering in gibberish. The girl was dressed as - Alice from Alice in Wonderland. It was the Mad Hatter, or some ripoff D-lister version of him. Great. 

It was pretty easy to catch up and get the guy away from not-Alice. A few concentrated kicks, jabs to certain areas… Easy. Tim wasn’t sure how much he wanted to admit it, but he actually really liked fighting. He didn’t want to jinx anything, though. Last Christmas he’d wished for crime to deal with, and then an alien invasion had happened.

“Nice work,” the Red Hood said from behind him. “Still not a fan, but nice work.”

“I’m beginning to believe you have some other reason to follow me around than hate,” Tim said flippantly. The girl screamed as she saw Hood land, presumably, behind him. “Please don’t scare almost-kidnapped children,” he added, beginning to tie the kidnapper’s wrists together.

“Sure, bird kid,” Red Hood leaned against the wall, looking at the little girl. “Sorry, uh… Alice in Wonderland?”

The little girl, shaking in fear, nodded. Red Hood nodded back at her. They truly had a rapport going on.

Tim stood up and texted Batman about what had happened, knowing he would send for someone to pick up the not-Mad Hatter. Tim really wasn’t sure who this guy was. Possibly a goon for the Mad Hatter?

“Fighting crime on Halloween,” Red Hood remarked. “Sad.”

“Being a criminal on Halloween,” Tim retorted. “Sad.” 

Tim couldn’t see behind the Hood’s helmet, but he was pretty sure the man was smiling, or at least smirking. Probably bitterly. From the short amount of time Tim had spent with him that wasn’t fighting - or more like defending himself - Tim was… vaguely sure of that.

Vaguely.

“You got the bad guy,” Hood said, climbing onto the ladder of a fire escape. “Wanna go get candy?”

 

/

 

At some point in the one, two months (it was November 13th - three months, almost exactly) since they’d first met the Red Hood, they’d fell into something of a chaotic pattern. Red Hood still hated them, but it was less viscous than it had been months ago, more of a… relaxed hatred. 

Relaxed hatred. Tim’s life was so weird. 

But they had an understanding, despite Red Hood being a murderer and a criminal - were those mutually exclusive? Tim probably should have told Batman or Nightwing about the Hood, but he didn’t think it would be a good idea, and not just because the Hood would probably be furious.

But Tim was getting more and more sure of their theory on Red Hood’s identity. They weren’t going to ask, because they had no idea how Hood would react, and Tim didn’t  _ really  _ want to die. Mostly.

“So, what’s up with you and the Red Hood guy flirting with each other?” Spoiler asked, perching on a fire escape above them. “Kinda jealous, boy wonder.”

“Hm,” Tim said, climbing up the escape themself. “Just got word from Batman, there’s a break-in two blocks away from us, in the jewelry store over there.”

“When will jewelers realize setting up shop in Gotham is  _ not _ a good idea?” Steph wondered, climbing to the top of the building. Tim had a minor heart attack when she almost fell. “Anyway, you’re ignoring the question. Robin. Rob-oy-wonder. A criminal is flirting with you.”

“ _ You’re  _ flirting with me,” Tim said, which was kind of a kindergartener insult, but it was sometimes true.

“Come on, you showed me pics of your ex and I’m fuckin gay now,” Steph said. “That sounded shitty, wait. I have a thing for your ex even though I haven’t met her. Fuck.”

“Steph,” Tim said, tired. “Just… stop.”

Spoiler sighed. “Probably a good idea. But he was still flirting with you. In that total kindergartener way, where a boy pushes you down the stairs ‘cuz he has a crush on you.”

“I am not in Kindergarten,” Tim said flatly. “And I really  _ doubt  _ he is too. Leave it, Spoiler.”

“Left,” Spoiler said, though it was not true. “Totally left.”

 

/

 

“You know who I am.”

The Red Hood was in Tim’s bedroom. Tim’s bedroom in his real parents’ house, of course, because even the Red Hood would never break into Batman’s house, even if he knew where it was. Which he probably did.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tim, who definitely did know what he was talking about, said. “You know who  _ I  _ am, obviously, though.”

“Oh, shut up, bird wonder,” Hood snapped. “You know who I am. Did you tell Batman?”

Tim crossed his legs. “Of course not,” he said. “That’s your job, Jason.”

Red Hood made a sound, low and annoyed, and then violently grabbed his helmet and pulled it off. His face was scarred, though they were light and barely there anymore. His hair was different than how it had been when he was alive, messier, and with a white streak through part of it.

“Don’t tell me what my job is,” he told Tim, though without the blank expression of his mask he didn’t seem as powerful. “Tell my why the fuck.”

“Why the fuck what?” Tim struggled to keep his calm facade up. (Behind the horror, he was… enlightened. He was talking to Jason Todd. He was talking to Robin - his Robin.)

“Why haven’t you told Bruce, why are  _ you  _ Robin, what the fuck  _ happened  _ when I was dead - I talked to the al Ghuls, but they wouldn’t  _ tell  _ me anything and I know someone died but I don’t know who --” Jason narrowed his eyes, and Tim was struck by how  _ human  _ he seems without the mask. “Donna Troy - Troia - better not have died. Troia is awesome.”

“Oh my god,” Tim said, because, oh my god. “Troia isn’t dead, she just left the Team. Um. Wally is dead. Kid Flash. Are we using hero names or real names, I don’t understand -”

“Shut up!” Jason said, but he seemed more exasperated than angry. This was truly an enlightening experience. “Okay. Why are you Robin? Seriously. Why.” (That part seemed more  _ tired  _ than anything else.)

Well, that was easy, at least.

“Batman needs a Robin,” Tim said, and almost flinched under Jason’s stare. “He went kinda… a little bit insane, after you died. He started hurting criminals way too much - almost killing them. I was… horrified. I tried to get Dick to be Robin again, but he refused. So… when Dick and Batman got in trouble with Two-Face, I stepped in…”

He shrugged. “And then, after Alfred and Dick talked to Bruce for a while, I became Robin.”

It was simple. Batman needed a Robin. Tim could be Robin.

Jason’s stare was something akin to empty as he stared at Tim. “Okay,” he said, and his voice almost broke. “Fine. That’s great, I guess.” Jason paused. “Do you think…” That time, his voice did break, and he sighed, not as angrily as before. “Do you think, if you hadn’t stopped him, he would’ve killed the Joker?”

Oh.

“I think,” Tim said carefully, “that if he’d met the Joker again in that time period, and Nightwing wasn’t there to stop him…” He took a breath. “Maybe. I’m not sure if he would’ve been able to stop himself.”

Jason didn’t exactly smile, but he didn’t frown, either, so Tim considered that a victory. “Good.” He said, opening the window and sticking a leg through it. “See you around, bird kid.”

For once, the term didn’t feel much like an insult.

**Author's Note:**

> \- the timeline of this fic goes from: sept. 18 ~ nov. 11  
> » i changed around the birthdays for a) plot reasons and 2) i wanted to give them zodiac signs that fit with their personalities ok leave me olone (tim is a scorpio Fight Me)  
> » shit what else  
> » tim is cool nonbinary superhero and they deserve peace let him live pls  
> » theyre like, genderfluid/flux, and sometimes they are a boy, sometimes agender, sometimes demiboy, rarely but sometimes a girl  
> » Let Him Live  
> » as a side note, let ME live
> 
> please comment!!!!!! but be nice im a shy forest kid


End file.
